You may be forgiven for thinking I fell off the face of the earth for a while. It wasn't that serious, I just hit a wall. And then that wall fell and trapped me underneath it for a few days. How ambitious was I, thinking I could cater for an exhibition, look after a bubby, run a household and deal with an understandably very stressed hubby and still blog? Well, I admit, I am pretty darn amazing, but not quite superwoman. Working on it though :)
How about we take a brief look at what has happened up until today. I haven't photo logged everything, just snippets. We had our monthly picnic on Sunday, adding to the weekend of catering, which is also why I didn't start re-blogging yesterday.
A yummy, high carb breaky to fuel my body before embarking on lots of cooking: mashed banana topped with natural yoghurt, 6 whole walnuts, rice malt syrup and sprinkled with cinnamon. Oh My Gosh- soooo good!
The day of the exhibition, a treat: savoury french toast (made with leftover olive ciabatta) topped with freshly grated parmesan.
One of the pesto's in preparation- spinach, basil and parmesan.
The start of my first attempt at horderves- mini savoury pancakes. Forgive me if I have brutalised the spelling.
And top those mini pancakes with cream cheese, smoked salmon and dill. As addictive as they are simple.
The finished cheese cakes. Not at all happy with the result. The cream cheese I used was so smooth and not as firm as the previous brand I'm used to. It really affected the taste and firmness. Still, they got devoured, so not many people cared apparently :)
A simple spread: Home made cheese cakes, pesto's- sun dried tomato and spinach/ basil. A zucchini bread slice topped with tomato pesto, salad sticks, crackers, chorizzo and cheese, olives...
Mini meatballs with sweet chilli dipping sauce and my smoked salmon horsdervers. A full table of nibblies that satisfied many (approximately 60-80 guests) for over an hour and half.
And now, onto today...
As I was climbing out of the wall that hit and crushed me, I realised I needed a place- outside of the house- to retreat too and calm myself down. Hubby's projects needed his full attention, and every available bit of space, so my living area was restricted to my bedroom and lounge room. That's it really. And that was getting to me, especially as it's warming up rapidly, as tends to happen when daylight savings hits. Another challenging factor is neighbours that often like to gather and talk outside my unit. It's impossible not to see or hear them clearly when sitting in the front lounge, or even my room. These places were not designed with sound proofing of any sort, and privacy is extremely limited too- especially for us in the middle units. Hear me clearly- lovely people, just very, very social. When I haven't slept and need time out though, this isn't something I enjoy.
So, after hubby's artworks went to the exhibition pre-opening night, I cleaned the back courtyard like a woman possessed. And out of that madness, a clean corner was created :) We had breaky there the morning of hubby's exhibition. It was just lovely.The budgies have a new place in the garden, and seem to love it too. I have an out of the way, shady little place to sit, relax, think. Honestly, something that simple has lifted my spirits immensely.
Follow today's pics and see how the day went...
A healthy breaky after a not so healthy picnic/ bbq yesterday: soaked chia seeds in natural yoghurt, topped with raspeberries. Tangy and not too bad :)
Part of my peaceful corner. These bromeliads were transplanted from a large bunch growing under my corner palm tree. I originally found a discarded plant on one of my morning walks. Now, I have so many, I can separate them and place around my little courtyard for a shady green screen.
Today, hubby and I went to Bunnings with bubby. She loved it, and we did too. This picture shows hubby at the beginning of creating my vertical herb garden. As you can see, we don't have much of a backyard. In fact, you are looking at most of it. But that's no reason not to create a place to grow herbs. It still gets several hours of morning sun a day, which is ideal for a tiny, potted garden.
Before I knew it, hubby was up to the legs. He is quick!
There you have it- a standing frame, ready for pots.
Nearly there. Just need to purchase more pots and start planting. I love it! My hubby rocks! I hope these pots are big enough, but only time will tell. Not too worried if not- they only cost 65 cents each.
Now, to dinner. I have walked a lot today, pushed a demented trolley through a packed hardware store for nearly an hour, cleaned and more today, so dinner needed to be easy and healthy. It was family dinner night after all. So, I made 2 basic dishes, cheesy veg and egg bake, and sun dried tomato, chicken and couscous. The above is the veggie bake just prior to the oven. I used fresh broccoli, pumpkin, onion and frozen peas. I cooked the veg in a pan with minimal olive oil, seasoned it, then placed them in a lightly oiled baking dish. I covered this with 4 eggs that had a large tablespoon of flour and a quarter cup of milk beaten in. This was poured over the veg, which was topped with grated cheese.
A simple, satisfying spread that fed 5 adults with leftovers.
I hope that leaves you satisfied for now. I am also sad to say that I shall probably only be blogging 3 days a week for a bit- Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Hubby has started his healthy eating from today, but unlike me, he is cutting back on sugar slowly, as he can't afford the side effects of a drastic diet change after the extreme amount of physical work he has been doing. One step at a time. But don't worry, I will be preparing yummy, healthy meals and snacks a few days in advance, so you really won't be missing out on too much at all.
Until next time, thanks for reading :)
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